Aren’t they lovely? It’s like, in the closet—it’s like a normal office closet—we’ve got like spare umbrellas, and jackets that people forgot about, and stuff left here by people who don’t work here any more.

And then, like, you know, right in the middle of all of it—jackets, umbrellas, like old props that—in the middle of all of it, boom! A full set of mushroom-ornamented, baby poop-colored, made in China, ugly kitchen canisters.

They take up a lot of space. But I can’t get rid of them.

We bought these hideous kitchen canisters when a producer on our staff stumbled upon them while out shopping and realized—photographic memory—that these were an exact match to one of the best campaign ad props thus far in the 21st century.

(Shows tape from years-old campaign ad.)

Look. Here they are. See? Over her right shoulder? There they are, in the wild!

These exact same canisters were the folksy kitchen scene backdrop behind a Republican candidate named Sharron Angle when she clutched a coffee cup and announced her political comeback.

Sharron Angle and canisters, showing that [adopting voice of harmless old lady] “There’s really nothing to be scared of when it comes to her. Forget all you think you know about old Sharron Angle.

“She’s back! She’s folksy this time. Drinking coffee.”

The mushroom canisters were Sharron Angle’s comeback and rebranding bid, in which she tried to get back into politics and run for a congressional seat just a couple of months after she lost the race for a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada in 2010...

The canisters were baby poop-colored! It’s the sort of folksy comment Maddow makes as part of her own branding efforts.

Why was Maddow wasting your time talking about the hideous canisters she can’t bring herself to get rid of? She was moving toward the claim that Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst is just as crazy as Angle was.

We wouldn’t vote for Ernst ourselves. But then, we wouldn’t hire someone like Maddow to go on TV and pretend to do a news program.

Eventually, Maddow ended up saying what follows. Even allowing for Ernst’s (rather occasional statements) on guns, this strikes us as your brain on stupid:

MADDOW: Earlier this year, Talking Points Memo turned up a survey in which Joni Ernst said she supports legislation to allow local law enforcement in Iowa to arrest anybody who tries to implement Obamacare in that state...

Joni Ernst answered yes to that question. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, arrest federal officials trying to implement this federal law, this federal scheme! Arrest them if they try to do it in Iowa.

So as I said, we do not have an answer from the Joni Ernst campaign yet as to when she believes it would be appropriate to shoot federal officials, but maybe you can extrapolate. I mean, if this Iowa Senate candidate advocates arresting federal officials who she catches trying to implement Obamacare in Iowa, would that also be a circumstance in which she believes you should be allowed to shoot government officials as well? Can you only arrest them? Or can you also shoot them? What if they resist arrest?

It’s kind of an amazing, amazing policy position for somebody who very well might be going to the U.S. Senate. I mean, if you catch somebody telling Iowa college students that they can stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26, is that a shooting offense in Joni Ernst’s Iowa or would that just be an arresting offense? I know it sounds nuts, but weirdly, it is not a stretch to ask that of Senate candidate Joni Ernst right now, because based on her public statement, the answer is not clear.

If it’s yes to arresting federal employees trying to implement Obamacare but no to shooting them, but there are some things for which she will shoot federal employees, and she advocates that other people do too, well, what are the circumstances in which she is going to shoot federal officials? When is it is OK?

If someone tells a college student that he can stay on his parents’ health plan, would Joni Ernst think you could shoot that person? Last Wednesday night, that’s one of the things Our Own Rhodes Scholar was trying to puzzle out.

In our view, Ernst seems to be a bit on the goofy side, with Maddow gaining ground fast. If you want to parse the logic behind her questions about crazy old Ernst, you can watch the full segment.

The following night, Maddow staged one of the scripted gong-shows with which she cons her more gullible viewers. She brought out her DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS sign to help her correct her report about the canisters of Angle County and the possible gun-play of Ernst.

Maddow runs these DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS scams to make us think, incorrectly, that she is scrupulous about correcting her own mistakes. In comment threads, we often see gullible liberals repeating this talking-point for her.

MADDOW (10/30/14): I have an important correction to make. Last night, we had a report about Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst. We reported that she took a page from former Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle when she threatened to use Second Amendment remedies, when she threatened that she’d use a gun to fight against the government if she didn’t get what she wanted through the political process.

Well, tonight, I have a correction to make about that. I’ll tell you, though, that this correction has nothing to do with Joni Ernst.

MADDOW (videotape from previous night): Here in our offices at 30 Rockefeller Center, in our office closet actually, we have, sort of randomly, a really hideous, complete set of kitchen canisters. These exact same canisters were the folksy kitchen scene backdrop behind a Republican candidate named Sharron Angle when she clutched a coffee cup and announced her political comeback.

I would say “Watch this space,” but I know all you’re watching right now is these hideous kitchen canisters.
(End of videotape)

MADDOW: Turns out, I was wrong about that. And here’s how I know it. Um-hm. A-hem:

Subject line: My canisters. Quote, "I was insulted that you referred to the canisters as ugly as I had bought that same set many years ago. I wish I still had my cute, adorable canisters."

Quote, "Hey, Rachel, my mother has a set, too. We could use a matching set."

Quote, "Dear Rachel, if you don’t have a use for those canisters, I would love to take them off your hands. They were exactly the ones I wanted when I was first married, and I've always had a soft spot in my heart for them."

Then there are your tweets. Look! Quote, "If by hideous you mean the most awesome canisters of all time, then you are correct.”

A substantial amount of pointlessness followed, but you now have the basic idea.

As it turned out, Rachel had received emails and tweets saying that the canisters in question actually aren’t hideous. So she staged the latest nonsense from the DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS.

Truly, this was pitiful stuff. Most significantly, compare it to what happened at the start of Friday evening’s show.

Presumably, the suits at MSNBC decided that Maddow had to say something about her sweeping misstatements. As a solution, Maddow opened Friday’s program with four additional minutes of giggling, eye-rolling deceptive statements and acts of misdirection.

She continued to heap ridicule on Varney, who had made perfectly sensible statements, while obscuring the facts about the wild misstatements she herself had uttered. Her clowning delivery was over the top, even for her. For the second time, liberal viewers were basically conned concerning what Varney had said.

For years, we’ve issued an official warning—despite her representations to the contrary, Maddow just isn’t obsessively honest.

At this point, we’d have to say she is approaching the lowest ranks of “cable news” TV stars. She’s nearing the dusty basement regions where people like Hannity dwell.

Maddow’s clowning and dissembling continued from there last Friday. The cherry-picking of facts and polls was rather extensive this night.

Maddow had an astonishing week. With a repeated suggestion that she could use some help, let’s leave matters right there.

You can watch both tapes: We never thought we’d see the day when Stuart Varney would get to be right about some factual matter. That’s how bad things have become over in the corporate-sponsored, $7 million salary-receiving, pseudo-liberal land.

57 comments:

Maddow said absolutely nothing about Varney. She devoted the segment entirely to the chyron ("cheap gas hurts economy?") that flashed on and off several times during Varney's segment. (Why did they flash it instead of just leaving it on? Hmmm, that's a complete puzzle.)

While she did not mention him once and did not ridicule him once, he, in fact, played along with the question -- gave the absurd question credence and therefore endorsed the question -- until the end of the short segment when both Varney and his guest saved their asses with the only conceivable conclusion. By tailoring the segment around the question, he owned the chyron every bit as much as Maddow owned the static screen shot that was 100% correct.

I don't recall Fox ever once suggesting to its fan base that higher gas prices might be good for the economy because it encouraged American oil producers to increase production. Of course, the question mark is a cheap trick that doesn't absolve the producer of the implicit assertion. Fox knows that -- they do it all the time.

It's unfortunate how often Somerby is possessed by the need to lie through his teeth in order to lash out at Maddow. But he did in the first post about this and he is still doing it. In fact, as is typical when he is challenged, he doubles down on it because he never, ever feels obliged to correct anything even when it was dead wrong. You always, always have to check the original source carefully when the subject here is Maddow.

You are correct. I explained last week that Fox's habit of "just asking the question" - always in a blatantly partisan fashion - was the premise of the segment. Another chyron asked "Stock market gains if GOP wins?" Rachel restated the premise last Friday while assuring Mr. Varney's tender little feelings that we know he eventually gave up on the stupid "low gas prices bad" meme. Mr. Somerby seems incapable of understanding the show he is watching.

So the Republicans nominated for, and the state of Iowa is about to elect to, according to recent polls, the senate someone who, even Bob acknowledges, has a screw loose. And this is somehow twisted around to being about Maddow. But Bob really, really hopes to be able to go the rest of the week without being FORCED to talk about Maddow. Perhaps a nuclear explosion would distract him from Maddow, but then again, probably not. The loathsome witch is somehow responsible for all the world's travails.

Ah, it was all those bitches' fault. If they'd sat on their hands, Ernst would have went down in flames for sure. But no, they came along and made themselves the focus of the campaign. Oh, and they also chanted about the minimum wage, the selfish, unreasonable bitches. How dare they. That alienated everyone.

Remember when Bob did a Nexis search using the word "Arizona" to prove nobody on Fox covereda story Rachel Maddow never claimed aired on FOX?

I did that as well as stick my head out of the window. Of course I used "Iowa" instead of Arizona. I will disclose that up front lest I get accused of covering us something like MIT did with its rape survey.

She damages progressive causes by alienating potential voters and misrepresenting liberal interests. For example, mocking canisters that many people may have in their homes or consider a normal and comforting part of their childhoods.

"As we noted in this post, Maddow made a set of ginormous misstatements about Stuart Varney last week." BOB

As was noted in the comments to that post, Maddow did not utter the words "Stuart Varney" in the piece about which our OTB devoted time to mention Stuart 18 times himself. Hard to make a more ginormous misstatement than to claim someone made misstatements about someone they never mentioned.

But that didn't stop BOB from doubling down and pooping out a cannister full of the same false tale in this very post.

"Presumably, the suits at MSNBC decided that Maddow had to say something about her sweeping misstatements" says BOB, turning his cannister full of poop into a crystal ball.

For years, we’ve issued an official warning—despite his representations to the contrary, BOB just isn’t obsessively honest. We discovered that when he cheated on test results to show Americans doing better on PISA tests than the Poles.

The last week or so our BOB has had a terrible time.

It began when Carol Costello Ruined the World!

It continued when, after Glenn Kessler linked to an Alison Grimes ad he felt was false, BOB asked "In what sense was the “ad” an actual “ad” at all?

Then there was the post when BOB accused Rachel Maddow of dropping part of a Rep. Issa statment to make Issa look bad, which BOB managed to sandwich in between posts in which he did exactly the same thing to Glenn Kessler and Jonathan Capehart.

Throw in some references to NAEP test results proving 9 year olds do as well as 11 year olds though the latter never took NAEP tests, five or six attacks on the dead Ben Bradlee being dumb back in 1997 and link everything somehow to AL Gore and thousands of dead Iraqis, and you have quite a recent spell cast here in BOBworld.

In summary, the man who asked "In what sense was the “ad” an actual “ad” at all?" went to great lengths to defend the network which ran the chyron heading “CHEAP GAS HURTS ECONOMY?”

Anon. @ 12:29 has been trying to use the same insult to make us scat for some time now. Of course when her brighter personality takes over, she psychoanalyzes us. Unfortunately that is the weakest of her many manifestations.

I would like to add that Bob has not only had a terrible week, he is having a terrible YEAR dating back to when his initial takes on Govs. Christie and Ultrasound were laughably wrong, and he kept doubling down for two solid months until even Uncle Drum publically wrote that he was making an ass out of himself.

Go look at just the titles of his blog entries for 2015 with all the "series" and "supplementals" for a quick referesher course how how far this vanity blog has fallen this year.

Liberals should be very angry, furious, with people who use the Costello line against Bob. Many highly visible putative liberals really are “snooty elitists!”

Why do tons of people in middle America believe that liberals are “snooty elitists?” In part, because ridiculous people like Costello keep going a million miles out of their way to reinforce the storyline then can't take a joke.

Ridiculous people who don't get the Costello joke, behaving in these ridiculous ways, are the leading edge of a (frequently accurate) stereotype—a stereotype which keeps getting liberals defeated.

You are looking into the face of 1) astounding commenter misconduct and 2) persistent liberal dysfunction and defeat.

Vastly mistating what urban legend said. According to @ 9:16 "trolls"—by which he seems to mean "urban legend"—are saying Bob is lying when he says Maddow never tells the truth. For the record, "urban legend" is one of the most ridiculous trolls, but he often defends Bob so he’s a relatively minor player in troll circles.

9:16 went on to moralize about troll logic—by which he apparently means "urban legend" —which seems to involve belief in magic. He implies certain words are necessary for "urban legend" and other like him in the troll tribe to believe anyone can be misled.

Unfortunately, 9:16 was completely wrong about what "urban legend" had said. What follows is becoming a regular occurrence with 9:16's increasingly strange comments.

What had "urban legend" actually said about Maddow? He said you need to check your sources carefully when she is mentioned here. "urban legend" never said you need to use magic words to mislead.

The emerging class of commenters like @9:16 are standing up against trolls. But by taking on "urban legend" they do porgressive causes a disservice.

I hope "urban legend" himself tackles this comment.Then I can guess what will happen. Presumably, the suits at TDH will decide that @ 9:16 has to say something about his sweeping misstatements. As a solution, he will make an additional giggling, eye-rolling comment filled with misdirection.

He'll continued to heap ridicule on "urban legend, who had made perfectly sensible statements, while obscuring the facts about the wild misstatements he had uttered. For the second time, Howler readers will be basically conned concerning what "urban legend" said

"As was noted in the comments to that post, Maddow did not utter the words "Stuart Varney" in the piece about which our OTB devoted time to mention Stuart 18 times himself. Hard to make a more ginormous misstatement than to claim someone made misstatements about someone they never mentioned."

That's just exactly: "Maddow couldn't have misled her viewers, because she never said the magic words "Stuart Varney," without which it is impossible to mislead anyone."

Actually, I think the use of a "?" can be a very effective means of enticing viewers to stay tuned. I don't know how many times Rachel has lured me away from TCM with promises of a non-boring story, which she doesn't get to until the final segment. We're all salesmen and whores. Rachel too.

For quite some time now Rachel has opened her show with these endless discursive prologues that beg the question, "Where are we going with this?" She is a case study in burying the lead. It's like listening to somebody read a New Yorker piece. I would suggest she change the name of her show to "My Point...And I Do Have One..." but Ellen Degeneres would probably object.

On the night in question, Rachel took a lot of airtime to demonstrate what a fine economy we have and how Fox routinely does everything in its power to belittle it and the great man who bestowed it upon us. Her point -- and I'm assuming she had one -- was that it was perfectly reasonable for her to assume that "Cheap Gas: Bad for the Economy?" was just another cheap shot at Obama. Given their record, who could have guessed Varney would have presented a pretty good report? (Anyone who watched the segment.)

Rache, when you're wrong, just say so.

I thought the Rhodes committee was supposed to filter out this kind of riffraff. Maybe she bored them into submission with her brand of rambling excuse-making.

Rachel's point was simple, and obvious to any regular viewer of that wretched America Pravda channel: Fox frontloads their shows with leading "questions" which always support that the country is going to hell in a handbasket at the hands of Evil Liberal. Sometimes a stupid question is just a stupid question.

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